The development of computerized distribution information systems, such as the Internet, allows users to link with servers and networks, and thus retrieve vast amounts of electronic information that was previously unavailable using conventional electronic mediums. Such electronic information increasingly is replacing the more conventional means of information such as newspapers, magazines and television.
Users may be linked to the Internet through a hypertext system of servers commonly referred to as the World Wide Web (WWW). With the World Wide Web, an entity having a domain name may create a “web page” or “page” that can provide information and to a limited degree some interactivity.
A computer user may “browse”, i.e. navigate around, the WWW by utilizing a suitable web browser, e.g., Netscape Navigator™, Internet Explorer™, and a network gateway, e.g., Internet Service Provider (ISP). A web browser allows the user to specify or search for a web page on the WWW and subsequently retrieve and display web pages on the user's computer screen. Such web browsers are typically installed on personal computers or workstations to provide web client services, but increasingly may be found on wireless devices such as cell phones.
The Internet is based upon a suite of communication protocols known as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) which sends packets of data between a host machine, e.g., server computer on the Internet commonly referred to as web server, and a client machine, e.g., a user's computer connected to the Internet. The WWW is a network of computers that use an Internet interface protocol which is supported by the same TCP/IP transmission protocol.
As stated above, users may receive packets of data from a server via the Internet. The packets of data may comprise what is commonly referred to as environmental data. Environmental data may include data that allows devices, e.g., smell generating devices, coupled to the user's machine configured to emit particular scents such as developed by Digiscents™. However, not all computers may include such devices, e.g., smell generating devices, configured to emit particular scents in response to receiving environmental data.
It would therefore be desirable to translate and substitute environmental data into a form a computer may be capable of reproducing.